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Party, do selfies, map the Philippine Startup future

What happens when nearly 500 geeks meet in Boracay? A lot!

Expect the tech reporters, columnists, and bloggers to have submitted for publication or posted already their take of the Geeks on a Beach conference last August 20 and 21, 2015 in Boracay. The social media-savvy participants already posted thousands of photos in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

We were there with the PRworks team, being part of TechTalks.ph headed by Ms. Tina Amper, that served as the event management back end.

  And here’s what we witnessed …

Geeks party hard

The series of parties began even before the official start of the conference.Food and drinks flowed during the pre-conference night chill sponsored by Kickstart at The White House. More drinks flowed during first night’s ASpace and Ipanema Acoustic Night at the Crown Regency’s beach front. Then came the geek party at Club Paraw.

I don’t party that much but this time i had soooo much fun! Until next year! #GOAB pic.twitter.com/BR4RwCZVpV — Haifa Carina (@haifacarina) August 21, 2015

Those who wish to relish those Club Paraw moments, check out the club’s grand album.

Get high by the beach

The strong south wind that locals call Habagat and the big waves failed to discourage many from taking a dip at Boracay’s waters.

Selfie and more

Geeks posted selfies and groupies in Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram using #GOAB. But Gerald Yuvallos of Cebu’s Istorya.net had a blast doing this.

Meanwhile, Digital Filipino icon Janet Toral had her moment with Dave McClure of 500 Startups.

Win prizes for pitching

Near Circles, a mobile app that connects you with barangay and subdivision neighbors has won GOAB’s international pitching competition. The other contest finalists are MobKard, a mobile app allowing merchants to create real-time and location-based promos, ProTees, a t-shirt crowd funding platform, Iskwelahan, a school announcements app, and Karpintero.ph, a web portal to quality and reliable construction service providers. The 5 finalists in the contest were chosen from an initial pool of 28 startups hailing from 8 countries, including India, Malaysia, Mongolia, Romania, Singapore, Thailand, and the United States. They delivered their pitches in front of the audience and panel of judges.  

The judges include STAC-Silicon Valley President Christina Laskowski, DOST-ICTO Deputy Executive Director Mon Ibrahim, e27 Co-founder and CEO Mohan Belani, 1337 Ventures CEO and Founder Bikesh Lakhmichand, 500 Startups Partner Tim Chae, and Smart eMoney COO Paolo Azzola. The top winner NearCircles received a cash prize of US$1,000, a GOAB Special Trophy, 1 unit Huwei Honor 4C Smartphone, and giftpacks. Second place winner MobKard and third placer Protees received a 1 unit Huwawei Honor 4C Smartphone and gift packs as prize each respectively. Iskwelahan, Mobkard, and NearCircles meanwhile received a special Smart Life Award for presenting an idea that enables customers to enjoy life through digital innovations. Each received 1 unit of Samsung Tab 3 Lite with a Smart Bro Prepaid Pocket Wifi. A VentureLab Award was also given to NearCircles which received US$250 plus a 1 hour mentoring session and to MobKard which likewise received US$100 and a 1 hour mentoring session.  

Map out tomorrow

Most significant, Geeks on a Beach 3 became the moment when the Philippine Startup Community — that includes both government and the private sector — launched the “Philippine Roadmap for Digital Startups 2015 and Beyond.” According to the roadmap:

In the long run, the main goal is to produce the next billion-dollar tech startup from the Philippines.

  Symbolic turnover of the Startup Roadmap @geeksonabeach #goab #goab2015 #Boracay @500startups @sunstarcebu @cbcbloggers   A photo posted by PRworksPh (@prworksph) on Aug 19, 2015 at 9:47pm PDT

This account is not definitely not complete. Perhaps you could also share your story, guys.